Via Shutterstock

A D.C. man was convicted today of a bizarre August 2012 crime in which he impersonated a District government worker, conned an elderly woman into allowing him to tow her car away, and then selling the vehicle for scrap metal at a Maryland junkyard.

Thomas Williams, 43, was found guilty by a jury in D.C. Superior Court on charges including theft from a senior citizen, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and impersonation of a government employee, Ron Machen, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, announced in a news release.

Last August 16, according to the evidence, Williams hired a tow truck and asked if the driver was available to haul a car to Maryland. The driver gave Williams a lift, and the two rode to the Northeast D.C. home of the victim, an 87-year-old woman who lives alone. Per the U.S. Attorney’s office, here’s what happened next:

Williams knocked on the front door, flashed an identification card, and told the victim that he was from the District of Columbia government and had orders to take her car, a 1996 Ford Contour that was parked in the driveway. She begged and pleaded with Williams not to take her car, saying that she was going to give it to one of her granddaughters.

But Williams, still feigning government authority, threatened the victim with criminal charges if she did not consent to allowing him to tow away her car. She relented, and Williams proceeded with the operation. The car was towed up to Maryland and junked.

Bill Miller, a spokesman for Machen, tells DCist in an email that Williams never specified which city agency he was pretending to represent.

Williams was later arrested after a Metropolitan Police Department officer visited the junkyard and found documentation linking Williams to the victim’s car. Williams was released following his arrest but failed to appear for a subsequent court date, and was later apprehended by a task force comprised of several regional law enforcement agencies.